


Coming Out

by ununquadius



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Acceptance, Bisexual Character, Bisexual Harry Potter, Coming Out, F/F, F/M, Family, Friendship, Gay Character, Gay Draco Malfoy, Lesbian Character, Lesbian Susan Bones, M/M, Trans Character, Trans Padma Patil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-27
Updated: 2018-06-27
Packaged: 2019-05-29 13:34:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15074240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ununquadius/pseuds/ununquadius
Summary: A four shots fic about Padma Patil, Harry Potter, Susan Bones, and Draco Malfoy coming out in different situations.





	1. Padma

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is a four chapter fic but with independient chapters, so you can read the chapter you prefer without bothering with the others (but, please, bother with them, they're not so bad). 
> 
> Hope you like it! <3 
> 
> And a big thank you to cubedcoffeecake for the wonderful beta!

March 12, 1997

It was one of those nights where they retired to their bedroom to have something like a sleepover. It was a childish wish in the middle of the dark times they were living in, but it gave them the feeling, just for a few hours, that things were not so bad.

That night, they had the curtains open so the moonlight bathed the room, although the torches were lit, as well as the fireplace. Painted stars glowed in the ceiling. 

Padma was sketching, seated on her bed, while the others were occupied in other activities. She wasn’t paying too much attention to her drawing though, because her mind continued to go back to the conversation she and her boyfriend had had the day before. So she decided to consult with her friends. 

“I should tell Anthony, right?”

She had come out as trans to her roommates, but nobody else in Hogwarts knew about her. 

“You shouldn’t do anything you don’t want to do,” Mandy said as she admired her freshly polished nails. 

“But he’s my boyfriend, and he’s been insinuating that he wants to… you know, have sex,” Padma said reddening.

She wanted to too. They had been together for two years, and their cuddles had being getting more and more daring every time. She wanted to experience her first time with Anthony, but the fact that he didn’t knew about her having a cock made her refuse to go further. 

“I’m with Mandy. If you want to tell him, do it; but if you prefer to wait, then wait,” Linda said, putting down her dressing gown and making herself comfortable on Morag’s bed.

“What do you want to do?” asked Morag, braiding Linda’s long, blonde, hair. 

“Tell him, but I’m scared. What if he breaks up with me?”

Anthony was the best thing that had happened to her. He was like her other half. She didn’t want to lose him. 

“If he breaks up with you because of that, I’ll hex him,” Linda said. 

“If he breaks up with you, he’s an idiot and he didn’t deserve you,” Mandy added. 

“I’ll tell him tomorrow.”

The next day, she guided Anthony to an empty classroom, locked it, and cast a Silencing Spell. When she turned, she saw Anthony looking at her with a surprise expression on his face. 

“What’s all this about?” he laughed. 

“I need to tell you something,” she said.

Her heart beated faster than ever, and her hands didn’t stop sweating. ‘Either I leave this room with my boyfriend and without secrets between us, or I leave single and with Anthony hating me,’ she thought. 

“Padma? You’re trembling! What’s it?” Anthony said, approaching to her and taking her hand. 

“I’m… I’ve been lying to you. Well, not lying, just not telling you the truth.”

She wanted to tell him. She really wanted to, but the words died in her mouth before she could grasp her bravery and pronounce them.

“About what?” Anthony looked so confused!

“About me,” she whispered. 

“I don’t understand.”

“Do you love me?” she asked to delay the moment. 

“Of course, I love you,” he said, still confused, but still holding her hand. 

“And if I weren’t like the other girls?” she asked unsure.

“You’re not like the other girls, that’s why I love you.”

“This is serious! There’s no time for romantic words than mean nothing.”

“Padma, you’re scaring me. What’s happening? I love you because you’re you.”

Padma stared at him. She wanted to do it. He cared about her, and if he didn’t care anymore after hearing her, then fuck him!

“I’m trans.”

She bit her lip and waited for the screams, the betrayal to show in his face. For the rejection. His hand loosened a bit in its grasps of hers, his eyes widened, but he didn’t say anything, nor left the room. 

“Well? What do you think?” she asked when she couldn’t stand the silence anymore. 

“I’m surprised,” he said slowly. 

“I’d understand if you don’t want to do this anymore,” she said because she felt that it was something she should say not because she felt that way. 

“What? No! No, I don’t want to break up with you because of that! Or break up with you at all,” Anthony said scandalized. 

“You don’t?” Padma asked hopeful. “You still want to be with me?”

“Of course I want to! I love you, remember? I don’t care if you’re trans or if you have a third eye! I love you,” he said, holding tightly her hand again. 

“I assure you I don’t have a third eye.”

“That’s a relief, but I wouldn’t mind.”

Padma laughed and hugged him. Then she stepped back.

“I don’t have a vagina and you’re straight, so…”

She wanted him to understand. Because it was easier if he knew everything in that moment, when she was ready to be rejected, than later on, when she feels safe. 

“I know. I love you. I told you, I don’t care.”

Padma breathed in relief, and knew that everything that was to come—about the war, about the future—she could endure; and she could also endure everything that was to come with Anthony. For now, they were fine.


	2. Harry

August 24, 1998

Harry is nervous. Well, Harry is very nervous. 

He is alone in Fred and George's old bedroom. It has been his bedroom since the war ended, and although part of him wants to protest, because there is no longer Fred and George and it feels wrong for him to stay in this bedroom as if it were his, he is grateful too. He hasn't anywhere to go but Grimmauld Place, and he prefers the welcoming Burrow.

The problem is that after the war ended and he had time to think about himself in a way he wasn't allowed to before, just as Harry and not as the Boy Who Lived, he discovered something. He is attracted to both girls and boys. 

Of course, it isn't a problem per se. The problem, and the origin to Harry's nervousness, is telling his friends about it.

Ron and Hermione are out on a date, but he plans to talk to them as soon as they come back. Ginny is at Luna's house. She spends a lot of time there lately, so they haven't had time to talk about their relationship. Not that he wants to be with her again. He can't be a great boyfriend right now.

The rest of the Weasleys are either at work or at the Muggle village, so he has time to talk to his friends alone.

He hears the front door open and voices in the living room. Time to talk to them! He tries to calm himself a little, doesn't manage to do so, and goes to the kitchen where he finds Ron and Hermione making tea.

"Hi," he says.

"Hey, mate! You alright?" asks a cheerful Ron.

He's always cheerful, now that he and Hermione are dating. But he has a lot of nightmares at night. Just like the rest of them.

"Yeah, I wanted to talk to you two," he says, wetting his lips.

"Of course, Harry, should we sit down?" Hermione says as she puts a big plate of chocolate scones in the table.

Ron brings the teapot and summons the cups with a flick of his wand. The cups end up smashing on the floor. Hermione casts a reparo, and Harry serves the tea.

"Well? What is it you wanted to talk to us about?" Hermione asks.

"I'm..."

He knows that Ron and Hermione are going to be supportive, because they were by his side in the war, when they knew he was marked as Voldemort's main target. But still... 

"I'm bi," he says not looking at them but at his teacup.

Hermione looks at him with a smile that he understands as acceptance, but Ron... Ron is staring at him in a weird way.

"He's what?" He whispers to Hermione.

"Honestly, Ronald! He's bisexual."

"Ahhh, yeah. I know," Ron shrugs and looks at them like they’re saying the sky is blue.

"What?" Harry and Hermione ask.

"I'm only figured out last month and you already knew?" Harry asks in disbelief.

"Of course I knew! I thought you were shy about it so I didn't say anything. So, you're telling me that you ask me in Fourth Year if Diggory seemed handsome to me and you didn't know you were bisexual? And in Sixth Year I swear I thought you were in a secret relationship with Malfoy!" 

"You...I'm...how?" 

"You asked Ron about Diggory?" Hermione giggles.

"Yes, he did! And he stares a lot at Parvati's and Seamus's arses in class."

"I don't!" Harry says, reddenning.

"You do!" Ron shouts with a triumphant smile.

“And don’t forget that time he told us how good looking Sirius was!” Hermione says.

“A straight man can also say that!” Harry says.

“But not with a dreamy expression!” Ron smirks. 

Hermione laughs as Ron continues to remind Harry about his crushes on both the male and female population of Hogwarts.

Harry tries to embarrass Ron reminding him about his relationship with Lavender, but that just serves to make Ron imitate him being in love with Malfoy, "And his hair is so blonde, Hermione, I think I might die!! And his eyes!! I call him Silverferret when we’re alone! But my favourite thing about him is his arse, so tight! I'm going to tattoo a peacock on my left bottocks in his honour!!" 

They laugh and joke until the scones and the tea are gone. As they tidy up the kitchen, Harry thinks that he has the most wonderful friends he can ask for. 

*A year later*

Harry is nervous. Well, Harry is very nervous. He knows they're supportive, but still...how will Ron and Hermione take the news that he had been dating Draco in secret for six months? At least he knows what jokes to expect.


	3. Susan

May 11, 1999

They were in a little village where they were supposed to find clues to solve puzzles, and stuff like that. An activity to reinforce the relationships among the eighth years and the houses. 

Susan’s group was Padma Patil, Draco Malfoy, and Harry Potter. They had been working together all year long, so the relationship between them could be called close, if not friendship. 

They were in a little forest when their wands made a funny noise, indicating that it was lunchtime and the game should stop for an hour. 

The four of them sat down on the grass, enjoying the fresh air and the sun that filtered from the leafs on the trees. The conversation turned to reviving old memories they had in common, like the Yule Ball in Fourth Year. 

“I wanted to go with Cedric Diggory so badly!” Padma said. “I was frustrated when I heard that he was going with Cho.”

“Really? I wanted to go with Cho,” Harry said.

“If you two were smart, you had done something to fix that. Instead, you went together, right?,” Draco said smirking at their offended faces. 

“I went with Parvati, and Padma with Ron,” Harry explained.

“Don’t remind me! He didn’t want to dance or anything! Just scowled at Hermione and Viktor Krum. Luckily I found myself a very handsome Beauxbatons boy,” Padma complained. 

“Only you would go out with Weasley, Patil. Why are you in Ravenclaw, again?” Draco asked, blocking the stinging hex Padma casted his way. 

“Have I told you about Ron asking Hermione to go to the Ball with him?” Harry asked. At seeing their heads shake, he added, “Oh, I have to tell you, but when they’re present!”

“What about you two?,” Padma asked Draco and Susan. “You went with Pansy, didn’t you?” 

“Yeah. I didn’t want to go with her, or with anyone really, but she wanted to go together, so we did,” he shrugged. 

“I thought you were together as a couple?,” Susan asked. 

She hadn’t paid much attention to the love lives of her classmates, but Draco and Pansy were always together. Like Ernie and Hannah, she sighed to herself.

“Nah! She wanted to, but I don’t like her that way. Only as a friend.”

“Poor Pansy!” Susan sympathized with her.

“You haven’t answered, Susan. Who was your partner?” Harry asked. 

“Oh, I went with Justin. We’re friends and neither of us had anyone to go with, so we went together,” she said hurriedly.

“But you didn’t want to go with him,” Draco said, looking intently at her.

She hated that about him. He always knew things just by observing. It hadn’t been so bad if he could keep it to himself, but he asked until he had a confirmation to his suspects.

“No, I didn’t,” she said. 

Two pink marks appeared in her cheeks. 

“Aw, with whom did you want to go?” asked Padma.

“No one,” she said hastily.

“You can tell us!” Harry said.

“Yeah, after all these hours together we’re like family. I’m starting to think Potter is not so bad after all!” Draco said.

Harry showed him his tongue. 

Susan thought that maybe she should say something. She wanted to because it was killing her, being unable to talk freely like the others. The fear of being rejected had being in her mind for a long time, until she was brave enough to come out to her family, who took it surprisingly well. 

She looked at them and thought that this was something she had to do all her life, coming out to different people. Better start as soon as possible. 

“I wanted to go with a girl”, she said. 

She looked proudly at them, because she was proud of who she was. Because she wasn’t afraid of the remarks about her sexuality that sure were to come.

“We already knew that, Bones!”, Draco said rolling his eyes. “I meant with which girl. Abbott? Patil here? Please, tell me it wasn’t Granger!”

“We didn’t know that! Are you a lesbian, then?” Padma asked. 

She was always like this, too excited about everything, but Susan couldn’t help but think that that excitement seemed closer to the scientific kind that discovers a new species than to the happiness for getting to know a friend better.

“Yes, I am,” she said a bit warily.

“Hey, that’s fine, Susan,” Harry said, smiling at her and putting his hand on hers.

“Yeah! So give up the gossip now! Who was your dream girl?” Padma asked.

“Lavender Brown. She was so beautiful! And funny and smart and brave,” her voice dropped at the end remembering that Lavender was dead because of the war.

They looked at each other thinking about the Battle of Hogwarts and of those they lost that night.

“And what girl has caught your eye now?” Draco asked.

“You’re the most gossiping person I know, Draco!” Susan said as Padma and Harry laughed at Draco.

“He’s like a male Rita Skeeter,” Harry joked.

“Ha ha, you’re hilarious, Potter,” Draco said.

“That’s why you love me,” Harry said, winking at him.

“I like gossip too. Who do you like, Susan?” Padma asked.

“Hannah.”

“Does she know?” Harry asked.

“No, she doesn’t. She doesn’t know I’m a lesbian either. I’ve told my family but not my friends.”

“Your friends are Hufflepuffs! They’ll be okay with it. Don’t worry.” 

In moments like that, Susan was still amazed that she was in such good terms with Draco Malfoy. She spent seven years hating him and now here she was, receiving his support about coming out to her friends.

“Aren’t Hannah and Ernie dating?” Padma asked suddenly.

“Yes,” Susan answered dejectedly.

“Don’t worry, we’ll find you a better girl for you. I don’t like Abbott, she’s too bossy and listens too much to McMillan. You need a pretty girl from a decent house like Slytherin or… well there’s no other decent house,” Draco said smiling at her.

“You’re going to set me up with Pansy, aren’t you?”

“Nah! Pansy is too good for you.”

“He’s so nice. We’re so lucky to have him in our group,” Harry said.

“Thanks, Harry, you’re nice too, but we’re talking about Susan here,” Draco said.

They spent the rest of the day joking and talking about girls that could interest Susan. 

Susan felt lighter. She had told them about her secret, and they had reacted very well. Maybe it was time to come out to her other friends. If something went wrong, she knew she could count on these three.


	4. Draco

July 26, 1999

It’s been six months since they started dating. Six months of secret meetings, of hiding from their friends, of rushed kisses and sex in remote rooms. 

He knows Harry wants to tell his friends, to shout to the entire world that he’s in love with Draco Malfoy (something that still amazes Draco), but he doesn’t do it because of him. 

He wants it too, of course Draco wants for every single person in Britain to know that Harry is his, but he can’t do it. He’s too afraid of telling his friends, and he’s terrified of telling his parents.

But he decides that if he really wants this—and he does—he needs to tell his family, because he doesn’t want to live in secret anymore. He wants to go to Diagon Alley holding hands with his boyfriend. He wants to call Harry ‘love’ in public. He wants to kiss him, to hug him, as he sees Ron and Hermione doing. He wants that. He can’t believe he is jealous of Weasley and Granger. 

Besides, he’s afraid of Harry getting tired of the secrets and breaking up with him.

It’s late. Maybe 3 or 4 in the morning. He’s lying in his bed thinking about the conversation he wants to have with his parents at breakfast. Well, maybe later; he doesn’t want them to choke on their food. 

He can’t do this. Tears start to drop onto the pillow, leaving a salty path on his face that he can’t be bothered to wipe off. They are going to be so disappointed! 

That’s what scares him the most; the disappointed looks he knows will appear on their parents faces as soon as he says the word gay. 

He couldn’t face the boggart in his Third Year because it became his father telling him what a disappointment he was for obtaining poorer marks than Granger. Those words, that look, haunted him for years. He wants his father to look at him like he did in Second Year, when he made it onto the quidditch team. He wants to see that proud smile on his parents’ faces that they sported in Fifth Year when he was named Prefect. He wants to hear the pride that is in their voices when they talk to their friends about him. But he knows that if he tells them what he is, there would not be any place for pride anymore.

He gets up when breakfast is finished, because he isn’t the brave one in the relationship. 

He goes to his father studio, where he knows his father goes every morning, and with any luck, his mother will be as well, placing freshly cut flowers in a jar over the fireplace.

He knocks and enters before any of his parents answer. They’re both here as he’d thought.

“Draco, are you alright? You look terrible. Did you have nightmares last night?” Mother asks as she looks at him with worry.

“I’m f-fine,” he manages to stutter.

“Did you want anything?” asks Father, frowning at him. 

“I want to tell you something. But I don’t… I mean, I…,” he says with his eyes full of unshed tears. 

Mother hugs him and guides him to one of the armchairs. She sits on the armrest and puts her arm around him. Draco can’t contain it anymore and starts crying. Father sits in the other armchair and asks, “Draco, what’s wrong?”

He tries to calm himself just a bit to tell his parents, but the fear clutches his chest so hard he’s afraid he can’t even breathe normally. 

“It’s fine, sweetheart, whatever it is, it’s fine to tell us, okay?” Mother hugs him tighter, but he can only think that as soon as he tells them, nothing is going to be fine again. 

After a few more minutes, he has calmed enough to speak. I have to do this, for Harry, and for myself, he thinks. He looks at his father, who’s still seated on the armchair and is looking at him with worry. Then he looks at his mother, stroking his hair lovingly and smiling softly at him. He has to make them understand.

“I’m..., I’m seeing someone, but I think you won’t approve.”

“Who is she?” Father asks. 

She. Because of course that’s the only possibility there is in his father’s mind. 

“Is she a half-blood? Is that why you’re worried?” Mother asks. 

“He’s a half-blood, yes”, he whispers, not daring to look at any of his parents. 

The silence that follows his words prolongs for so long that he finally looks up. Father is stunned, looking at him with his mouth agape. Mother has stopped with the stroking of his hair and is looking him like she had never seen him before. Then she lift her hand of his head where it has been resting and he feels that casual gesture as rejection for everything he is. Tears gather again in his eyes and his sight returns to the floor.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers, because he doesn’t know what else to say.

A weight has been lift of his heart, but a new one is making its home there. 

“Who…”, Father begins. He has to clear his throat a couple of times before he can ask the complete question. “Who’s he, then?”

Draco notices the quirk of his mouth at pronouncing he, like he’s saying something distasteful.

“Harry Potter.”

Mother sighs and touches his hand with care. 

“I was hoping to be a grandmother someday, but I suppose that’s out of the question now. Well, you could adopt,” she says smiling. 

“You’re okay with this?” he asks, hopeful.

“After all that has happened, after the war, after almost losing you to that madman, do you think I’m going to let you go just because you like men?” she asks. “You’re my son. I love you with all I have. As long as you’re happy, I’m happy too.”

“We’re a bit shocked, that’s all, but of course we’re okay with whatever you want,” Father adds. 

Draco stares at the two of them in wonderment. All the nervousness, all the sleepless nights, all the tears, for nothing. His parents accept him, and that is the most wonderful feeling in the world.

“You have to invite Potter for dinner sometime, we’ll want to meet him properly,” Father says.

“Do you think he’ll be interested in your childhood stories? Like when you jumped in the pond to save the fishes from drowning?” Mother asks.

“I shouldn’t have told you anything!” Draco groans.


End file.
